‘ALICE and Martin” is best watched while doing a crossword or reading the paper.

It starts promisingly, but after the first hour, the only things that really hold your attention are some attractive locations in Spain and southern France.

Certainly the two main characters are too thinly sketched, and their relationship too opaque to be very interesting. It’s hard to believe that Andre Techine, the director of 1995’s superb “Wild Reeds” could also have made such a banal, confused, and, in the end, unsatisfying melodrama.

It starts with Martin (Jeremy Kreikenmayer) as a 10-year-old being raised by his mother (Carmen Maura) in a small French town. Suddenly she decides that he would be better off living with Victor (Pierre Maguelon) the wealthy father he has never met and sends him away.

Abruptly flash forward to Martin 12 years later (Alexis Loret). He’s now some kind of unshaven runaway hiding out in the countryside, stealing eggs from farms until getting caught and arrested.

Then, just as suddenly, we see Martin arriving in Paris to stay with his gay half-brother Benjamin (Mathieu Amalric) and Benjamin’s best friend Alice (Juliette Binoche). Benjamin is a struggling actor who works as a security guard, Alice is a violinist.

Even though Martin is a sullen, uncommunicative youth beloved by artsy filmmakers, Benjamin and Alice take him in.

And within a few days Martin finds work as a fashion model. He also hooks up with Alice. But thanks to some tiresome mood swings it quickly becomes apparent even to Alice that Martin is burdened by some kind of dark TV-movie-style secret.

Unfortunately, when you find out through a combination of flashbacks and Alice’s investigations, just what that secret is, it’s kind of a letdown. For an actress with Binoche’s powerful arsenal, this kind of suffering, devoted role isn’t difficult and she does her best to give you something to watch even when there’s no dialogue. Loret’s part – the silent, brooding pretty boy – is more thankless and less interesting.